Director Software Engineering

Director Of Product Software Engineering

Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology

Technology is at the heart of Disney's past, present, and future. Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology is a global organization of engineers, product developers, designers, technologists, data scientists, and more – all working to build and advance the technological backbone for Disney's media business globally.

The team marries technology with creativity to build world-class products, enhance storytelling, and drive velocity, innovation, and scalability for our businesses. We are Storytellers and Innovators. Creators and Builders. Entertainers and Engineers. We work with every part of The Walt Disney Company's media portfolio to advance the technological foundation and consumer media touch points serving millions of people around the world.

Here are a few reasons why we think you'd love working here:

• Building the future of Disney's media: Our Technologists are designing and building the products and platforms that will power our media, advertising, and distribution businesses for years to come.
• Reach, Scale & Impact: More than ever, Disney's technology and products serve as a signature doorway for fans' connections with the company's brands and stories. Disney+. Hulu. ESPN. ABC. ABC News…and many more. These products and brands – and the unmatched stories, storytellers, and events they carry – matter to millions of people globally.
• Innovation: We develop and implement groundbreaking products and techniques that shape industry norms, and solve complex and distinctive technical problems.

Product Engineering is a unified team responsible for the engineering of Disney Entertainment & ESPN digital and streaming products and platforms. This includes product engineering, media engineering, quality assurance, engineering behind personalization, commerce, lifecycle, and identity.

We're seeking a Director of Product Software Engineering who will lead our mobile foundation and core services teams. The mobile foundation teams are responsible for the foundational components, libraries, and frameworks that power our Disney+ and Hulu mobile applications. The core services teams own the foundational web platform powering Disney+ and Hulu, including remote configuration and feature flagging, edge traffic management (nginx, Akamai), and the CI/CD and developer-experience tooling consumed by the web product team. Across both pillars, this leader is accountable for the platform investments that determine how quickly web and mobile teams can ship safely to millions of consumers. The right person for this role is highly motivated, collaborative, and technical, with the ability to coordinate across teams and empower both themselves and others in striving for and achieving excellence.

Responsibilities:

• Direct and oversee multiple teams through managers: accountable for performance, operations, and outcomes. Ensure growth at every level and cultivate a future bench of leaders.
• Drive vision and strategy for systems/products across mobile foundation and core services. Own org-level OKR(s). Facilitate architectural decisions in collaboration with Principal engineers.
• Own significant cross-functional initiatives end-to-end: driving priorities through organizational dependencies, removing systemic bottlenecks, and ensuring nothing stalls waiting for someone else to act.
• Set technical direction across both mobile foundation (iOS/Android) and core services (edge, config), ensuring shared platform investments such as observability, release safety, and developer tooling are prioritized coherently across stacks.
• Build and maintain relationships across organizations and external partners, influencing business direction and ensuring engineering teams have the resources needed to deliver.
• Shape and operationalize engineering strategy: establishing performance standards, developing organizational policies, and embedding a culture of ownership across teams.

Minimum Qualifications:

• 12+ years of engineering experience building consumer-scale applications, with deep expertise in either native mobile development (Swift, Kotlin, Apple/Android frameworks) or modern web platforms (TypeScript/Node.js, tooling, edge/CDN systems) with demonstrated fluency partnering with leaders in the other. Expertise in both is preferred.
• 4+ years of experience leading engineering managers and building high-performing organizations across multiple teams.
• Experience owning platform services that other engineering teams depend on such as SDKs, component libraries, configuration, CI/CD systems, or developer portals.
• Experience partnering with senior stakeholders across Product, Design, and business leadership to define and drive a roadmap that balances business objectives with long-term engineering health.
• Effective collaboration and communication skills, able to discuss technical topics clearly and engage in productive technical discussions.
• Track record of identifying and removing systemic organizational bottlenecks and championing engineering standards and best practices across multiple teams.
• Demonstrated ability to own and drive alliance-level OKRs, holding teams and stakeholders accountable for outcomes.
• Experience developing and implementing operational policies and engineering performance standards at an organizational scale.
• High emotional intelligence, experience maintaining composure under high-pressure situations and meeting tight deadlines.
• Strong project management skills, seeing projects through from inception to completion.

Required Education :

• Bachelor's degree or better in Computer Science or a related technical field or equivalent job experience.

The hiring range for this position in Seattle, WA and New York, NY is $239,700 - $321,400 per year. The base pay actually offered will take into account internal equity and also may vary depending on the candidate's geographic region, job-related knowledge, skills, and experience among other factors. A bonus and/or long-term incentive units may be provided as part of the compensation package, in addition to the full range of medical, financial, and/or other benefits, dependent on the level and position offered.

About Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology:

At Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology, we're blending imagination and innovation to reimagine the ways people experience and engage with the world's most beloved stories and products. Our work is wide-ranging and deeply sophisticated. We create amazing experiences, transform the future of media, and build products and platforms that enable the connection between people everywhere and the stories and sports they love.

Disney's ability to marry world-class technology with one-of-a-kind creativity makes us unique. It is at the heart of our past, present, and future. We are Storytellers and Innovators. Creators and Builders. Entertainers and Engineers.

About The Walt Disney Company:

The Walt Disney Company, together with its subsidiaries and affiliates, is a leading diversified international family entertainment and media enterprise that includes three core business segments: Disney Entertainment, ESPN, and Disney Experiences. From humble beginnings as a cartoon studio in the 1920s to its preeminent name in the entertainment industry today, Disney proudly continues its legacy of creating world-class stories and experiences for every member of the family. Disney's stories, characters and experiences reach consumers and guests from every corner of the globe. With operations in more than 40 countries, our employees and cast members work together to create entertainment experiences that are both universally and locally cherished.

This position is with Disney Entertainment & Sports LLC, which is part of a business we call Disney Entertainment and ESPN Product & Technology.

Disney Entertainment & Sports LLC is an equal opportunity employer. Applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, religion, color, sex, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, ancestry, age, marital status, military or veteran status, medical condition, genetic information or disability, or any other basis prohibited by federal, state or local law. Disney champions a business environment where ideas and decisions from all people help us grow, innovate, create the best stories and be relevant in a constantly evolving world.

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The Walt Disney Company and its Affiliated Companies are Equal Employment Opportunity employers and welcome all job seekers including individuals with disabilities and veterans with disabilities. If you have a disability and believe you need a reasonable accommodation in order to search for a job opening or apply for a position, visit the Disney candidate disability accommodations FAQs. We will only respond to those requests that are related to the accessibility of the online application system due to a disability.

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